With the final coordinated roster construction window ahead of the 2024 season approaching in about one month, when teams trim their rosters from 90 players to 53, the NFL trade block could soon start to pile up with players on the bubble or buried on the depth chart.
Accordingly proposing trades for every NFL team before the campaign, Bleacher Report’s Alex Ballentine crafted two involving the Jaguars, with Jacksonville acquiring New Orleans cornerback Marshon Lattimore and sending defensive lineman Roy Robertson-Harris to the Los Angeles Rams.
Citing the well-documented perception that Jacksonville remains in need of cornerback help, Ballentine gave New Orleans the Jaguars’ 2025 third-round pick (from Minnesota) for Lattimore, referencing L’Jarius Sneed’s March trade from Kansas City to Tennessee for a third-rounder and a seventh-round pick swap.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are attempting to contend in an AFC that has a ton of firepower and elite quarterbacks. That requires an elite secondary that can contend with the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow.
Right now, the Jaguars have Tyson Campbell and Ronald Darby as starting outside corners with not a whole lot behind them. An injury to either of them would pose a serious issue for new defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen.
Nielsen made himself known as a defensive assistant with the New Orleans Saints. It might be time to get on the horn with his former team and see what it would take to bring in Marshon Lattimore …
The Jags would be on the hook for most of his 2024 cap hit and the remainder of his five-year, $97.6 million contract. That might be the cost of keeping up with the Joneses in an extremely competitive AFC right now.
Lattimore signed his massive contract extension with the Saints in 2021. It went into effect in 2022 and has been restructured three times.
The deal currently includes a $14.6 million cap hit for this season, a $31.4 million hit in 2025 and a $28.6 million hit in 2026.
A first-round pick by New Orleans in 2017, Lattimore has intercepted 15 passes, defended 86, forced five fumbles, and recorded 375 tackles including seven for loss in 90 games, all starts.
Lattimore has missed 17 games in the last two seasons, however, due to a sprained ankle in 2023 and a lacerated kidney the year before. And on Friday, he exited New Orleans’ training camp practice with a hip flexor injury.
As for Robertson-Harris, Ballentine doesn’t envision Jacksonville necessarily seeking this trade out.
Rather, he believes Los Angeles would benefit from adding a veteran defensive lineman after Aaron Donald’s retirement and that Robertson-Harris makes for a good candidate, especially considering Jacksonville’s revamped depth in the trenches.
Ballentine sent the Rams’ 2025 fifth-round pick to the Jaguars in exchange for Robertson-Harris in the mock trade.
There’s no replacing Aaron Donald. He will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and his one-of-a-kind ability to wreck a game can’t be duplicated. However, the Rams have a promising interior disruptor in Kobie Turner, and Braden Fiske profiles as a chore for offensive linemen with his explosiveness.
What the Rams don’t have is a veteran run-stuffer who is going to eat up blocks and force teams to run around him. That’s where a trade could help them as camp gets underway.
Roy Robertson-Harris has been a solid veteran for the Jaguars defensive line, but they acquired Arik Armstead and drafted Maason Smith this offseason. That could leave Robertson-Harris with a smaller role.
A trade would save the Jags $2.5 million against the 2024 cap and get them out of an $8.9 million cap hit for next season. Meanwhile, the Rams would get some much-needed interior depth.
Robertson-Harris signed a three-year, $23.4 million free agency contract with Jacksonville in 2021 and earned a three-year, $30 million extension from the club last offseason.
In three seasons and 48 games with the Jaguars, Robertson-Harris has accumulated 116 tackles including 14 for loss, 9.5 sacks and seven pass breakups.